Matthew J. Sanders is an Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School.

Sanders trains second- and third-year law students in the practice of environmental law. He also teaches courses in federal public lands law and advanced legal writing and supervises students in directed research projects and externships.

In his clinical work, Sanders represents non-profit organizations and tribes in cases concerning public lands, endangered species, conservation, environmental justice, clean energy, pollution, and other issues. Sanders’s academic research and scholarship covers cutting-edge topics in environmental law, administrative law, and clinical and legal practice. His most recent article, Rethinking the Administrative-Remand Rule, was recently published in Volume 78 of the Stanford Law Review (June 2026).

Prior to his appointment to the Stanford Law faculty, Sanders was the acting deputy director of the Environmental Law Clinic and a lecturer in law. Earlier in his career, Sanders served as an appellate attorney in the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, a deputy county counsel for the County of San Mateo, an attorney in private practice, and a clerk for Judge Consuelo M. Callahan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Sanders has also taught legal writing at American University’s Washington College of Law.

Sanders is a member of the governing council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He is co-chair of the Section’s Environmental Law Societies Network and the former editor-in-chief of Trends, a national publication of the Section.